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Making the switch to natural deodorant can be a bit like taking a driving test: If you’re not fully prepared for the road ahead, there’s a strong chance you might fail before you succeed—at least, that was my experience when I first tried to convert 15 years ago. I was persuaded to ditch my drugstore antiperspirant by a yoga teacher friend. “Don’t you know that stuff is full of poison?” she said when I whipped out a stick of deodorant after an Ashtanga class. Admittedly, I had no idea that aluminum, the active ingredient in most antiperspirants, is potentially harmful, with studies having raised questions about its link to cancer. And given that my mother is a two-time breast cancer survivor, that potential truth, whether conclusive or not, hit a raw nerve. “You should use this stuff instead,” she said, thrusting a clear phallic object into my hands—a deodorant made from crystallized rock salt. This, she assured me, was Mother Nature’s answer to odor-free pits. “Layer up with a little perfume and you’ll be good to go,” she said.
What she didn’t tell me, though, is that no amount of salt can fully substitute for antiperspirant. Therein lies the fundamental difference between what you’ll find at the drugstore and the natural alternatives. Antiperspirant prevents you from perspiring, just as the name suggests. Deodorant, on the other hand, functions by zapping the bacteria that causes body odor; it won’t stop your sweat glands from doing their thing—and that’s kind of the point. So if, like me, you decide to go au naturel during one of the hottest New York summers in recent memory, then you’ve got to be prepared to sweat—a lot—at least in the few weeks that it takes for your body to adjust.
My interactions with other people became fraught with anxiety almost immediately upon making the switch; even a friendly handshake held the potential for disaster. What if my outstretched arm revealed an unsightly wet patch? Or worse still, a putrid whiff of B.O.? (Sadly, my fragrance-free salt wand had usually stopped working by noon.) Hugging and high-fiving were now completely out of the question. I remember one particularly steamy morning, emerging from the subway as if I’d literally gone swimming in the East River in my vintage silk dress. (Note to all natural-deodorant newbies: Never wear silk in the heat; it’s almost as insulating as a puffer coat.) In that moment, I felt so defeated that I would have willingly drowned myself in a pool of my own sweat. Needless to say, I was back to my drugstore-deodorant-using ways within a week.
“It’s really a matter of finding what works best for you. Not every natural deodorant works for everybody,” says Katie Sturino, founder of Megababe, a body-positive beauty line. “I tried all the ones people were raving about when it first became a thing. A lot of them had baking soda, which I’m allergic to, so I ended up with pits covered in rashes.” Sturino, whose mother is also a two-time cancer survivor, decided to make nailing the perfect aluminum-free deodorant her personal mission. Megababe’s Rosy Pits deodorant was a year in the making, part of a new generation of products that bring the science of natural deodorants up to speed. Her brand replaces popular natural-deodorizing agents such as baking soda and alcohol, which can be irritants to sensitive skin, with a blend of antibacterial ingredients, like sandalwood and sage, as well as skin-nourishing coconut extract and antioxidant-rich vitamin E. Where traditional natural deodorants tend to pull from a repertoire of heavy herbal scents—eucalyptus comes to mind—Sturino’s has a light, floral note. “We went through a lot of roses—grandma, sugary, you name it—before I found the right one,” she says of her fragrant pick, Moldova rose. “Now, when I open it, I just want to stick my face in it because I love the scent so much.”
Admittedly, it’s a big part of why I like Rosy Pits too. I’m also a big fan of stick formulas, especially when they hold up all day like this one. Since my misadventure with the rock crystal, I’ve managed to get back on the aluminum-free deodorant wagon. In fact, ask my friends and family and they’ll probably say I’ve become a bit of a natural-deodorant zealot. Up until recently, I’d been relying on aluminum-free deodorants by brands like Vichy, which I discovered in Paris about nine years ago. Luckily, there are a ton of effective options on the American market now, so I no longer have to schlep all those products across the pond.
As far as roll-on natural alternatives go, Aesop has one of the best out there, in my opinion. Vetiver root, zinc, and Wasabia japonica are listed as active ingredients—no alcohol or baking soda to be found, so it’s pretty gentle. The biggest selling point for me, though, is the long-lasting fragrance, which is fresh and woody in a way that is appealing to both men and women (not that there aren’t men out there who want rose-scented pits—Sturino swears that her husband is her best guinea pig—but still!). For those nonsensitive types who are looking for something a little more zingy, there are solid options containing baking soda. Leaves of Trees has a paste formula that comes in a variety of fragrances, including Persian lime. Eir NYC’s fir-needle-scented version is in the same vein, pegged as “an antiperspirant for him and her.” It’s made almost exclusively from natural ingredients with names you will easily recognize—shea butter, arrowroot, rosemary oil, et cetera—music to the ears of hardcore natural-beauty purists.
Perhaps more satisfying than my own natural-deodorant journey, has been watching my mom’s embrace of the aluminum-free life. After her first cancer diagnosis, she was quick to make the necessary changes to her diet—she will readily wax lyrical on the benefits of turmeric, flaxseed oil, and her newfound love of kale, for example. And yet weaning her off the potentially toxic products lurking in her bathroom cabinet took a lot more coaxing. Like many women of her generation, she was raised on the old cliché: Women don’t sweat, they glow. So the idea of natural deodorant seemed somehow eek-y and unladylike, something she initially wasn’t on board with. (I remember catching her red-handed with a drugstore antiperspirant one morning, when she’d sworn blind off the stuff.) Now that there are actually natural deodorants that do the job, I’m pretty sure that, like me, she’s never turning back.
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By Carolina Dalia Gonzalez and Kiana Murden
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